Here’s the new F word – Feminism.

Very often, when you tell someone you are feminist they look at you like you must be a frustrated man-hater or maybe a home-breaker, or a jilted woman in need of sympathy and attention.

To avoid this, women tend not to talk about feminism except when in circles that already understand. In other company, feminists sometimes reveal their identity a little apologetically.

There is also a tendency among women who misunderstand feminism to quickly tell people they are not feminist, like it were the plague. And as an article in Feminsiting points out, they are a huge problem! Here’s an excerpt:

The obvious ilk to blame for feminism’s shitty PR is anti-feminists. We can certainly trace the specific lineage of believing women are inferior to men to a conservative line of thinking on gender and power — which ultimately led to the feminist backlash, spreading untrue rumors about bra-burning, rebel rousers that wanted to castrate men (or however it goes).

And how do we deal with them? Here’s a much-needed subversive message: some feminist pride, that will help. Share it widely and celebrate being a feminist today! Our audience on Facebook is already doing just that!